How Hollywood Vilifies Gays Essay

1583 words - 6 pages

Not only can a man not marry his dog, but a man who chooses to do so must be put down. This is what our conservative society expects to hear from our friends and neighbors and as a consequence expect all to follow that principle. In the film Philadelphia, a bigot group of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants are so intolerable towards homosexual relationships, that they are willing to frame an old friend to get rid of them. Similarly to I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry or Brokeback Mountain, Philadelphia puts the lead homosexual as a protagonist while ignoring the fact that the general view is that of an antagonist. Similar to how a villain fails to win over the charming princess; a gay character is always left at a disadvantage: Andrew Becket dies for being gay, Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine mock the gender by taking advantage of it for money, and Jack dies for being a “queer.” Hollywood is not ready to accept the popular belief that our society has a positive ideology on homosexual relationships.
The American nation stands behind its fear of diversity with closed fists. This is a nation formed with antiquated ideals of freedom, which sought religious freedom without paying concern to exactly how much freedom their own religion actually provided. “For this cause will a man go away from his father and his mother and be joined to his wife; and they will be one flesh. And the man and his wife were without clothing, and they had no sense of shame” (New International Version,Gen 2.24-25), this passage from the Bible illustrates how marriages are supposed to be only between a man and a women, and if it is done otherwise, you should be ashamed for committing a sinful act.
The majority of the media in the United States is predominantly conservative. They follow a capitalist model where they promote a conservative agenda while making a profit. CBS Corporation, TimeWarner, Disney, and Fox News are a few that are part of a conglomerate group of conservative companies which run America. The companies aforementioned attempt to assimilate themselves with the most popular and neutral side, but instead reinforce a stereotypical xenophobic message, which in turn makes Hollywood afraid to present itself as un-American. A hypocritical conservative is not something rare, as multi billionaire Donald Trump knows best; he brands himself an extreme conservative and an ideal candidate for presidency, yet he owns the pageant rights to miss USA, a place where girls publicly wear clothes not suited for fine conservative gentlemen.
Hollywood has been known in the past decades to be predominantly conservative but often self labeled liberal. From the beginning of Hollywood films, the homosexual element was often used as a comedic element such as in Some Like It Hot. On other times where a homosexual was shown, he was typically feminized, mentally disturbed, or ferociously depressive. Being gay was viewed literally as a sin, and as a consequence, could never be viewed...

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